The Distance Between Us
by Smash41KMF
Summary: Tezuka receives an upsetting letter from a close friend, and she the same from him, to what lengths will she go to save their friendship, and possibly something more? Slightly depressed Tezuka in this one! DISCONTINUED
1. Letters

Distances

By: Smash41KMF

Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of Tennis, or any of its characters, only my own OC characters!

Tezuka is seventeen in this, and my OC character is fifteen, but even the two year distance shalln't kept them apart! I will not allow it!

Chapter One : Letters

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**Yo peoples! I'm back and I love this story!! I hope you like it too, it's a TezukaxOC romance, and it's sooooooo sad, but then again it's soooo cute and sweet and touching, and ahhhh! I'm going crazy over my own story, so you peoples read it, and tell me what YOU think!**

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Kunimitsu Tezuka, the authority commanding captain of the notorious Seigaku Tennis Club, sat silently, as he read through the neatly written letter over and over again, trying to wrap his confused and spiraling mind around its contents. His eyes ran over the last few lines once again, and his hands began to shake violently until he suddenly released the letter, watching as it fluttered to the floor, before holding his head in the palms of his hands. He began to shake his head from side to side, refusing to believe what he was reading. It wasn't like her, she'd never do that, she cared too much to ever do that to him. She promised to never leave him, that she'd never walk away, yet there, in that very letter she was acting as if she'd never what to see him ever again, that he was as good as dead to her.

Tezuka looked at the palms of his hands, they were moist from his tears. Tezuka stared at his hands, before carefully closing them, and squeezing them into frustrated fists, with white knuckles, and deep cuts where his nails dug into the palms of his hands. A deep growl began to rise from deep within his throat, as he bent down and glanced at the painful letter, before standing up straight and crumpling the note, and throwing it into the garbage can before slamming the door behind him.

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Meanwhile...

She stood there, staring down at the letter, her throat closing every time her eyes came to those five dreaded words, unable to comprehend how he could ever turn so cold as to say that to her. They'd been the best of friends ever since she had been born on his second birthday, and ever since they'd always been close. She could remember how so many people had mistaken them for siblings, because in truth, they used to act like it when they were little, but their relationship changed after her grandfather died when she was ten, and they became closer, but in a different way than they had been before. She swallowed, as the memories of all of their times and experiences flowed vibrantly through her mind, causing tears to began to run down her cheeks.

Then, the memory of the night of their fifteenth and thirteenth birthdays when he took her to the summer fair. She pulled her knees up to her chest and cried into them, as her eyes wandered over to the framed picture of them that sat on her dresser. It was the happiest night of both of their lives, it was the night they shared their feelings, as well as their first kiss. She sniffed as she gazed mournfully at the picture that her cousin had somehow managed to catch without them knowing, and even though she had been mad with him at first, the picture soon became her very favorite, and she took it with her whenever she traveled, so he'd always be with her wherever she was, and whenever she needed him near her.

She rose from the bed, wiping the hurt tears from her eyes and walked over to the dresser and stood before the picture, picking it up and looking at it, before carefully placing it back down, and laying it face down on the dresser before picking her suitcase up from beside the dresser and leaving the house for the very last time, because she was now set on one and one thing alone.

She was going to find him, no matter what it took. She was going to find Kunimitsu Tezuka.

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** Okayyyyyyy, time to review everybody, and yeah, I know it's short and all but I have to build sispence so it's good, and I promise to try and make the future chapters longer!**


	2. Memories

The Distance Between Us

By: Smash41KMF

Disclaimer: I do not own the Prince of Tennis, or any of its characters, only my own OC characters!

Tezuka is seventeen in this, and my OC character is fifteen, but even the two year distance shalln't kept them apart! I will not allow it!

Chapter Two : Memories

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**Yo peoples! I'm back and I love this story! I hope you like it too, it's a TezukaxOC romance, and it's sooooooo sad, but then again it's soooo cute and sweet and touching, and ahhhh! I'm going crazy over my own story, so you peoples read it, and tell me what YOU think!**

**By the way, Scarlette Shizuru, this chapter is MUCH MUCH longer, and I hope you like it!**

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Madison sighed, as she carefully closed the door behind her for the very last time, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes as she turned her back on the old farmhouse that held so many memories of happier times. She let out a second sigh as she slowly descended the old farmhouse's front steps, dragging her last suitcase along behind her. Every 'thunk', every 'thud' felt like a small, painful, stab through her heart as the distance between herself and the once-lively farmhouse grow, while the one between her person and the car idling alongside the sidewalk shrank. She held back her tears. She had to. If she could, she'd choose to stay and grow old and die in that farmhouse, but this wasn't a decision was allowed to make, nor she could change. It had been set in stone ever since the death of her parents that she'd be sent to live with her grandparents overseas if she was not of the age of eighteen. It was written in her parents' will, and there wasn't a thing that she could do to change it. And though she didn't agree with that part of her parents' will, she couldn't help but feel slightly excited about getting the chance to live overseas in Japan; as much as she dispised the thought of admitting it.

It wasn't that she didn't like her grandparents. She loved them. But she also loved that old, American farmhouse that she had grown up in with her parents and her two older brothers. Their family had lived there for over thirty years, and they still were going to, but not as a family. Her eldest brother, Matthew, had promised their parents that he'd look after the farmhouse for a year or two after their deaths (by their own requests), before putting it on the market. Though she did find the request strange, Madison wasn't going to protest against their parents request, it was hard enough to have to leave it behind and move; but she doubted that she would be able to watch another family move into it so soon after they left. Madison was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of her other brother, Jacob, who had promised Matthew that he'd see their little sister off at the airport in Matthew's place. Madison blinked and found herself standing on the very last step of the farmhouse. She shook her head and gave the twenty-four-year-old a small smile that he obivously didn't buy because he frowned slightly and gave her a sympathetic look.

" Come on, you flight leaves at two this afternoon, and I want to take you somewhere before you leave." Jacob said, as he stood up from his slouched brace against the car and walked up to his younger sister and gently took hold of her hand, just as he did the night their parents had died.

Madison looked down at their interlocked hands and then back up at her brother before smiling and following over to the car to put away her suitcase. She wasn't going to deny it. Despite being annoying brothers at times, both Jacob and Matthew had always known how to make her feel better; even if it meant doing something as simple as holding her hand. It always worked.

Madison's smile lingered a little longer after she let go of her brother's hand and quietly slipped into the passenger seat beside him. She listened silently as Jacob twisted the keys to the old Chevy and the engine roared to life.

" So, where are we going?" she whispered after minutes of unnerving silence between herself and her brother.

" You'll see in a few minutes." he replied curtly and Madison sighed. He wasn't going to give anything away, so she didn't feel the need to pester him. It could be the last time she might see him for the next few years and she didn't want to waste the precious time by acting childish and immature, so she sat for the rest of the ride in silence.

And just as Jacob had told her, they had reached their destination within a few short minutes. Madison gasped as her eyes suddenly began to water. Jacob driven them to Waterfront Park. It was tucked away from the main streets of Leavenworth, Washington. It was the park where their parents had first met, where their dad first proposed to their mom and their mom had rejected him, and where he proposed a second time and she said yes. It was where their family would have family get togethers every few years during the summer. It was also where their family had met the Tezukas when her mother was pregnant with Madison and the youngest Tezuka was a few months over a year old. It was the same park that the two families would meet every other year to spend the summer together ever since Madison was born.

Madison could feel all the memories of the park flow through her, but only one of them brought her to the tears that refused to spill since their parents' deaths. It was fact that it was the park that their parents were headed to when they were killed on their aniversary in a hit and run car accident.

" Why...Why did you bring me here?" she choked as she turned and cried into her brother's shoulder while they stood before the bench the city had dedicated to their parents after their wedding.

" Because you needed to cry." Jacob whispered as he wrapped his arms around his trembling sister. " You needed to let it go. Matt and I couldn't let you leave here with so much burden." he whispered into her ear as he stroked her back lovingly.

With the exception of her crying, Madison remained silent for several minutes, feeling both content and safe in her brother's arms. But she knew that it was probably becoming the time that they had to leave for the airport and she was forced to slowly pull away. However, she felt better. A lot better. Her brother was right, and now she was glad that he had taken her there, and as they made their way hand-in-hand back to the Chevy, Madison turned around and blew Waterfront Park a goodbye kiss, and then ducked into the car and she and her brother started off for the airport.

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Tezuka sighed, as he gripped the shoulder strap of his bag and dug his fingers into the handle of his suitcase in silent, fumming anger. He still couldn't get the thought of Madison's letter out of his mind, and now that he was sitting at the airport in Germany waiting for his plane to land wasn't helping. It was giving him the time to think about the letter, and the more he though about the letter, the more it hurt, but the more it hurt, the more he thought about how it wasn't adding up, and the more that his mind continued to prove that the letter wasn't adding up, the more his heart fluttered at the thought that she really still cared about him; but then that led him back to what she had said to him in the letter and the cycle restarted itself all over again.

The thought of Madison also arose many forgotten, and not-so-forgotten memories of their families' summers together in America. It reminded him of that near-perfect smile that almost always graced her soft, pale lips. Of her long, curly, soft dark-brown hair that was normally pulled up in a simple ponytail, or sometimes in a neatly done bun. Her bright, chameleon-gray eyes that shimmered in the sun and seemed to glow in the moonlight. Everything about her he loved. He had watched her grow up, and he grew up along with her. He was there when she was born, it was his birthday, and it was her's too from that day onward.

They were told that they looked like sibilings, and that relationship grew to them becoming even closer friends, but everything changed when her grandfather died of a sudden heartattack on a joint family outing. He could still remember that shear horrified look that gripped her every feature. She couldn't stop crying, and she had ended up biting her own lip open before the night was over. He could remember how it felt holding her quivering body as she continued to cry into his shoulder. He was there at the funeral too, and it hadn't made anyone feel any better when it started to rain halfway through. He could remember how he held her against his side with one arm as he held their umbrella over their heads with the other.

He could remember the promise that he had made to himself that night after the funeral. He swore that he'd never let Madison go through such pain ever again. He hated that look of terror he had seen in her eyes. He hated those tears that wouldn't cease flowing from her eyes. He swore that if she'd ever have to cry again, it wouldn't be through pain, but happiness.

Tezuka suddenly pulled himself out of his thoughts and quickly unzipped the small compartment between the main and the second pockets of the tennis bag by his feet. He reached into the shallow pouch and immediately grasped what he was searching for and withdrew it without a second thought and a small smile was brought to his normally stiff lips. In his hand he held the small picture on a metal key chain. The picture was both geniunely sweet and personally torturous at the same. It was of him and Madison, sitting along the banks of Wenatchee River in Waterfront Park after their families had decided to take a walk there on their way back from the summer fair on his and Madison's fifteenth and thirteenth birthdays. Yes, he was just as mad as, possibly more than, Madison was at her cousin, Kyle, for taking her picture when they weren't looking, but it was times like now that he was glad that Kyle had taken the picture.

Suddenly, Tezuka blinked and looked at the picture like it was any other picture and this time he truely did smile, because it didn't matter what point of view it came from, the picture was real, and so were his feelings for Madison. But that thought then turned his smile into an annoyed frown when the realization dawned on him that someone was deliberately trying to create a barrier between them and now he was determinded to find out who they were, and why they wanted to separate the childhood friends.

So, filled with a new sense of determination in field other than tennis, Tezuka slipped the picture into the pocket of his jeans before standing up, grabbing his bags and heading for his terminal with only a single thought on his mind.

He was going to find Madison Sheaffer. And he was going to pick up their relationship right where he left it hanging. No matter what it took.

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**Okayyyyyyy, time to review everybody, and I'm sooooooooooooooo happy that I was finally able to get a long chapter in after sooooooooo much slacking! I know that it really isn't a very good ending, but I can asure you all that the next chapter will be good. It'll be either in the fourth or the fifth chapter that I'll have Madison and Tezuka finally find each other. The next chapter is going to be called, " Departure" and it's going to contain alittle of Madison and Jacob when madison boards the plane, but mostly Tezuka's and Madison's thoughts while they're flying in the air to Japan. And then the fourth chapter is going to be called, " Landing " and I'll either have Tezuka and Madison accidentially run into each at the airport, or I'll have them accidentially bump into each other and continue walking because they see their rides, all the while thinking about how much the other seemed familiar. And chapter five might be called, " Reoccurance" because I might have Tezuka with either his thrid-year friends on their way home from practice or him with his family going on a walk on their way to dinner at a restraunt and have them run into Madison and her other grandparents on a walk through the park. During the interaction, I'm going to have Tezuka and Madison simultaniously flashing back on their first offical meeting when he was five and she was three during a family get together one summer. They'll also be thinking about how much the other has changed over the years, and then it might go to their thoughts on the mysterious letters they recieved supposedly from the other.**

**AHHHHHH! I hope i didn't give too much away! Now you might not read the next few chapters! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! OH NO! I'm sorry! Please, I was just writing down all of my ideas as they popped into my brain! Please do read the next chapters! These were just ideas, so they might not actually happen! Anyways... Please review! And stay put for these next few chapters! PLEASE! ENJOY!**


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